50 Plus Safaris to Africa or India
Non-Profit Animal Shelter's Affordable Jungle Tour for Baby Boomers
Take a nearly month long photo safari. See Kenya, Mombasa and exotic landscapes with other active baby boomers. Costs may surprise you.
How It All Began
When Lee Linklater first saw “Born Free”, she had no clue it would change her life. That film sent her to the Nairobi bush country among lions, elephants, and cape buffalo. She had no idea she would arrange and lead photo safaris to Africa and India for American baby boomers, nor that George Adams, star of “Born Free,” would become her friend and Maneka Ghandi an honorary member of the board at Assisi Animal Foundation, Crystal Lake IL, where Linklater is director and founder.
Her love for animals and her dedication to conservation fueled a correspondence between Adams and Linklater until poachers murdered George in 1989. “A chain of events convinced me there may be something called fate setting our feet on unexpected paths,” she said.
“My love of animals is all encompassing. I got interested in endangered species and in Africa. After George died, I corresponded with his successor, Tony Fitzjohn, who kept at me to come to Africa. Africa!” she recalls.
Linklater and her mother, women who never camped, who hated bugs, and liked soft beds, hot showers and good food when traveling, were going to East Africa. Linklater said. “I took a commercial tour. Such an experience! We talked so much about it our board suggested putting something together for Assisi’s members.”
The Safari
She spent 1991 researching, and in 1992 headed back with her first group. Linklater, herself over 50, and her mother have taken the trek nearly every year since. She said, “This tour is magnificent! Tanzania and Kenya. Because of Assisi’s not-for-profit status and contacts we’ve made, we put safaris together at a fraction of the usual cost. An incredible journey, a terrific value.”
She focuses on Kenya and on India’s wildlife parks because they have banned hunting and poaching, and because she admires their conservation policies. “We all think of lions as always being there, for example; something that just is. Twenty years ago there were 200,000 – that’s down to 23,000. People are not aware of the fragility of nature. The Masai and Samburu have enormous respect for animals, that’s why we go there,” Linklater explained. “Conservation is written into India’s constitution, and their religions prohibit wasting animals.”
You can’t predict what a given tour will encounter. She said, “It's spontaneous. People come back with an amazing new point of view - the need to protect animals grows exponentially as guests gain understanding and share it at home.”
Reservations begin early each year for Linklater’s July trips. She explained, “We’re limited because we go to small, private places. Places so cold they seem like Scotland, and very warm places. Tropical settings, like white powder beaches on the Indian Ocean. You see rarities like reticulated zebras. One tiny rain forest shows us sable antelopes - so beautiful. Last trip a pride of lions walked one-by-one right behind our van. We have sat in the bush in the morning, giraffes grazing all around us...close enough to hear them breathing.”
Accommodations are comfortable and upscale; maybe elegant tents with indoor plumbing, sometimes a hotel built in treetops. The food is excellent, and the trip no more physically difficult than the average vacation - you don’t leave your comfortable van. Safari guests have included an octogenarian with a hip replacement, and a man using crutches for a broken ankle. He refused to miss the experience. If you want physical challenge, like climbing Kilimanjaro, Linklater can arrange that. She says, “There’s lot’s of wildlife -- all for real. The animals aren’t captive, trained, domesticated or hand-fed.”
If You Decide to Do It
Information is available about the July excursion from Assisi Animal Foundation through their Website at www.assisi.org. Annually, Linklater plans 26 days in Africa to observe the world-renowned migrations. She starts at Tanzania, the Serengeti, where the migration begins, and follows waves of animals to the north, an age-old trek. Linklater explains, “The land portion of the safari is under $7500. Your international airfare ranges from around $1300 to $2000 and there are bargains out there, if you shop.”
What’s Included
All overnight lodgings, all meals except lunch first and last day Nairobi and Mombasa, day room in Nairobi last day, English speaking guide/driver except in Mombasa where additional tours are optional, transfer to and from Kenya airport, all park and reserve fees, transfers to and from domestic airports or landing strips, ferry fees, transport in safari vans.
What’s Not Included
International flights, departure taxes, tips, personal purchases, laundry, optional excursions, beverages other than coffee or tea, passports, visas, personal insurance.
